School: European GCE Study & Counselling Center , Famagust
    FAMAGUSTA, FAMAGUSTA, CYPRUS

3 students, ages 16 worked together to complete this Doors to Diplomacy project on March 15, 2012. They have participated in Doors to Diplomacy in the following year(s): NONE

Classes and Teachers: GUNCEM GOKSAN (TEACHER), BUSE, MEHMET and ICIM

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://

1. Description of Our Team

All participants are 16 years old. Buse, Icim and Mehmet are planning to study medicine during their higher education.Icim is the workaholic who is never tired of looking for researches. She works very hard to gather necessary information for our website.She came up with a lot of information.Mehmet is the organizer of website. He organized the data that was gathered by Icim. He also added his huge historical knowledge when he organized our website data. Buse is the graphic designer of our web page. She is very ambitious to create new things like graphics and logos. She has got very good technical skills.

2. Summary of Our Project

Turkish Cypriots became the partners of the Republic of Cyprus in the year 1960. However, problems started in 1963 which went on until the coup d’etat by Greece on July 15, 1974 which was to be followed by the Turkish army’s peace operation five days later. Since 1974 there have been many occasions which both parties sat down for the settlement of the problem to no avail. This project aims to reflect a clear picture of how the republic was formed, the reasons for the unsettlement and how the international organisations are trying to rebuild the bridge between the communities while the leaders of the communities are trying to find a settlement at the table, which has been going on for the past five decades without any success. In the meantime we try to reflect how it feels like to be like a Turkish Cypriot – embargoed from almost anything that different citizens of hundreds of countries enjoy. However, we have full faith in diplomacy and the doors it can open for peace for many centuries to come. Once and for all!!

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:1

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:1

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

There were lots of documents we had to go through many of which depended on events which took place many years ago we were born. After we collected the material and sorted out how these will be used in our project we faced a problem about how to present it on the website. The busy timetable of our school meant that we had to do our research as quickly as possible. Hence, we planned the work to be done after school hours and we were diligent in sticking to the original plan.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

“Peace is not something you wish for; It's something you make, Something you do, Something you are, And something you give away.” is the quote by Robert Futchum which reflects the status quo we are experiencing as a nation. sums up our ideas that there is a need to reach a workable solution for the Cyprus problem. Currently there are many problems in different parts of the world. Such as, thousands dying from hunger and the uprising mainly in the middle east and African countries. With all these problems we feel that we are lucky people in this Mediterranean area of Europe and by logical give and take process we feel that the problem of Cyprus can be solved. For the sake of ultimate and sheer peace !!

6. How did your activities and research for this Doors to Diplomacy Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

For our project we had to collect information and put it into a presentable format for other people. In fact this was a process of learning, questioning, analysing, listening and being patient. While trying to prepare our project we learnt to use the search engines on the internet more effectively and efficiently. We questioned the things put across to us in the history lessons. All in all, we are more aware of what peace in fact brings to people’s lives and to be able to achieve peace there is a need for effective and justifiable diplomacy. Another learning experience was working as a team. Shouldering responsibility, organising events, having brainstorming sessions, becoming a team and working as a team, criticizing without harming feelings, and covering ground as a group of people is some of the tasks we performed. Sharing became a part of our lives. We felt more stronger than ever before with a greater awareness about the country we live in.

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your Doors to Diplomacy project?

These are the information tools and technologies that we used: 1.Mobile Telephone: To contact with each other and other parties. 2. Digital camera:To frame anything which looked interesting, to capture resources as many as we can and then load it to our computers without too much of a hustle. 3. Computer & the Internet: We used the online website maker for editing photos, recording findings, sending and receiving e-mail's and surfing for more information, 4. Computer software: Photoshop, Paint ShopPro8, Macromedia Flash MX, Microsoft Office XP, FTP Program, and PowerPoint 5. Scanner: Used for using some old pictures and information. 6. Tape recorder: We used it in interviews.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your Doors to Diplomacy project both on-line and in person.

Diplomacy project both on-line and in person. We learned a lot by talking and discussing with everyone we know about Republic of Cyprus, the constitutional problems, the coup d’etat of the military government of Greece and the peace operation by Turkey. We noticed that there are hundreds of bi-communal activities performed to build a bridge between the two communities and how it is essential to make people believe trust each other. We will use school announcements to inform our school, and we will show our site to certain clubs and classes about Cyprus Problem. 3) What has been the impact of your project on your community? Our project will have a profound impact because we will be able to reach teenagers with our website, and they will learn new things about the Cyprus problem and hopefully pass this information onto others. We hope that the impact will be an increased awareness of the peace and democracy problems all over the world and support in gaining consciousness for those who try to help create a better living conditions in a country. Our project will help people become more aware of what is happening outside their own country and to expand their minds to other parts of the world. Our self confidence in meeting new people and communicating with them is a lot better. We gained know how on how to create a web site by using Flash software. Organising all the information into an understandable and presentable unit is another thing we learned. Our teachers and peers are aware that more field work should be conducted especially concerning our cultural heritages. Our awareness in peace and democracy matters has increased immensely. We feel that we have more knowledge about our country and human rights.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

Our project will have a profound impact because we will be able to reach teenagers with our website, and they will learn new things about the Cyprus problem and hopefully pass this information onto others. We hope that the impact will be an increased awareness of the peace and democracy problems all over the world and support in gaining consciousness for those who try to help create a better living conditions in a country. Our project will help people become more aware of what is happening outside their own country and to expand their minds to other parts of the world. Our self confidence in meeting new people and communicating with them is a lot better. We gained know how on how to create a web site by using Flash software. Organising all the information into an understandable and presentable unit is another thing we learned. Our teachers and peers are aware that more field work should be conducted especially concerning our cultural heritages. Our awareness in peace and democracy matters has increased immensely. We feel that we have more knowledge about our country and human rights.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

This project clearly puts forward that schools should not be kept apart from the society. We should be in closer contact with our community and also be in contact with other societies as well to see what everyone else is up to. Learning should not be limited and by getting out of classrooms and getting connected to other people via internet to share our knowledge is extremely important. While doing the project we had many friends and teachers giving us a helping hand. Whoever we contacted volunteered to provide us with every bit of knowledge they had. We had our Information Technology teacher heavily involved with our project.

Special thanks to: • Mr. Mehmet Ilkerli and Mr. Erdinc Ilkerli for spending many hours with us to provide us ideas about the development of our web site and his extraaordinary skills in creating graphics, • Guncem GOKSAN helped us organize the materials we collected and checked our translations from Turkish to English. • Kibrisononline, for providing us the link for our web site and technical support for the web site.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

We gained unbiased awareness about the Cyprus problem and that the problem did not start after the peace operation by Turkey. In fact, it has been a problem ever since the Republic of Cyprus was formed in early 1960’s. We were surprised to notice that our Greek Cypriot peers are not aware about pre-1974 problems.